Yeah, I think beef is less common in Asian dumples simply because beef itself is a little less common in Asia. Relative to Europe and the Americas, anyway. I more commonly see pork, chicken, duck, shrimp, veggies. Or, it could be a texture thing.

Bakemaster wrote:Who likes dumplings? All kinds of dumplings! When I was younger I loved peking ravioli, which Wikipedia tells me is a specifically Bostonian name for Jiaozi/potstikkers. So that's interesting. And I do love matzo balls to death.

BUT! My absolute favorite has got to be Momos. One of my friends from highschool (and currently roommate) is from Nepal and he and his family introduced me to the wonder that is a night full of Momos. Steamed in stacking metal steamer pans, eaten as they come out, making them pretty much all night—there were 300 last time but I wasn't in top form so I only had about 30. I can't compete with my friend, though. He claims his record is around 75.

I need to get this girl's recipe for the sauce she makes to go with them, or pay very close attention next time she makes it. If I get something useful I will post it.

The actual recipe they follow is fairly approximate. Ground meat, either chicken, turkey or pork, is mixed with garlic, ginger, yellow onion, green onion, tomato and spices. Everything's pretty much minced or finely chopped. I keep trying to figure out the spices but they only know the nepali names of them; I recognize cumin and turmeric and I'm working on the rest. Oh and also a stick or two of melted butter, which sounds and looks sort of gross, but I have long since stopped caring.

"She’s a free spirit, a wind-rider, she’s at one with nature, and walks with the kodama eidolons”

In this post: I discover that I have forgotten just about everything I knew about BBCode. Also: these are jiaozi I made this year.

tenet |ˈtenit|nouna principle or belief, esp. one of the main principles of a religion or philosophy : the tenets of classical liberalism.tenant |ˈtenənt|nouna person who occupies land or property rented from a landlord.

Thank you! The picture got a good (envious) response on Facebook, and it also got a good response from the person I made the dumplings for.

I think that was the time I tried something new and put shiitake mushrooms in the filling. Oh. My. God.

tenet |ˈtenit|nouna principle or belief, esp. one of the main principles of a religion or philosophy : the tenets of classical liberalism.tenant |ˈtenənt|nouna person who occupies land or property rented from a landlord.

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.- Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, Nobel laureate (14 Jan 1875-1965)

Lucky for you that this forum sent a COMPLETELY RANDOM notification email that someone had posted in a Games thread that I was apparently following, and I logged back in out of curiosity!

Behold!

tenet |ˈtenit|nouna principle or belief, esp. one of the main principles of a religion or philosophy : the tenets of classical liberalism.tenant |ˈtenənt|nouna person who occupies land or property rented from a landlord.

I still mostly stick to basics. Ground turkey (or pork or beef) + cabbage + carrot + green onion + soy sauce + rice wine + sesame oil + various spices. In the picture I posted, there were shiitake mushrooms. The most recent batch I made, I tried out Chinese Five-Spice powder from Penzeys. Gave it a nice spicy kick.

Note to all would-be dumpling makers - when making the filling, you need to follow this order of steps: Chop/process the vegetables, flavor the vegetable mixture with your flavoring agents, THEN mix in the ground meat. This way you can taste test your filling without, y'know, ingesting dangerous bacteria.

tenet |ˈtenit|nouna principle or belief, esp. one of the main principles of a religion or philosophy : the tenets of classical liberalism.tenant |ˈtenənt|nouna person who occupies land or property rented from a landlord.

I've started to have friends requesting dumplings as their Christmas presents in lieu of anything else. I'm just glad I can preserve this piece of my heritage.

My next challenge is the gluten-free jiaozi, which will be a serious one. Googling turns up literal dozens of different suggestions, recipes and techniques. My favorite was the one that tried sticking two spring roll wrappers together.

tenet |ˈtenit|nouna principle or belief, esp. one of the main principles of a religion or philosophy : the tenets of classical liberalism.tenant |ˈtenənt|nouna person who occupies land or property rented from a landlord.

So I tried the $2/box shumai and har gow they have in the freezers at the Vietnamese grocery this past week. Yuge mistake, I'm telling you, the worst. I imagine these to be basically China's equivalent of off-brand Bagel Bites. Gonna stick with the $6/bag frozen baozi that I know are good, and maybe figure out how to make har gow myself because they are my son's favorite dim sum item. Needless to say, I will report back at such time as I have the opportunity to try it.

podbaydoor wrote:Lucky for you that this forum sent a COMPLETELY RANDOM notification email that someone had posted in a Games thread that I was apparently following, and I logged back in out of curiosity!

I was looking for gluten-free recipes because my platonic life partner and roommate was diagnosed with Celiac’s 12 years ago and GUESS WHAT IT TURNS OUT SHE WAS TOTALLY MISDIAGNOSED

She has a completely different GI issue, which is not great, but she can eat gluten again which means REGULAR OLD WHEAT-TASTIC DUMPLING PARTY WOOT

Also: the family dumpling-making scene in Crazy Rich Asians was flippin’ revelatory in terms of seeing such a major part of my growing-up experience receiving the big American mainstream movie treatment. I didn’t cry, but I did have a huge, wondering grin on my face. This is how white people feel all the time in movies, isn’t it.

tenet |ˈtenit|nouna principle or belief, esp. one of the main principles of a religion or philosophy : the tenets of classical liberalism.tenant |ˈtenənt|nouna person who occupies land or property rented from a landlord.